If I ruled the world, I would address the biggest threat to economic progress and political stability over the next decade: scarcity of resources. As an economist and author, I have travelled to every continent over the past two years, and the one common issue faced by every country I visited is the coming shortages of key commodities.
Although many countries have created strong economic growth and made significant strides in moving hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, the risk from commodity shortages promises to put a dent in all this good news. The world’s dwindling supplies of land, fresh water, energy and minerals—essential for food and “white goods” such as mobile phones, cars, televisions and washing machines—cannot meet the pressures rising from global demand.
Three key factors drive this skyrocketing demand: the rising world population, expected to grow from roughly 7bn today to 9bn in 2050; increasing
hisanan roger
you should include effect of climate change as one the factors.
Robert M Malasha
Very interesting . . . though I would put fresh water top of my priority list.followed by Land and energy.
Chi
Greetings Moyo,
don’t you think that if America is not worrying about resource scarcity, it is simply beacuse she secures large deposits of it, and impiges her growth on the exploitation of others’ resources?